Dodd Middle School Student's Musings

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Is it fair that animals around the world are suffering? Every day an animal is being beaten or neglected. This may involve beating, stabbing, shooting animals and even setting them on fire. I think this is wrong and should be stopped immediately. Also these animals are neglected like, not giving them necessary food, water, shelter and vet care. Most of these animals are dying everyday. Some examples of animal abuse would be dog fighting, puppy mills, animal hoarding, farm animal welfare, horse slaughter, and any other animal issues.

Dog fighting is when dogs are forced to defend themselves against other dogs for profit or entertainment of other people. This is wrong and a terrible thing to do to any animal. These animals are held in isolation and spend their time on heavy chains. They are pushed in many ways under bad conditions. For example, “They are regularly conditioned for fighting through the use of drugs, including anabolic steroids to enhance muscle mass and encourage aggressiveness,”(The Criminal, Underground World of Dog Fighting). Even though dogfighting is illegal in every state, people are still doing it for money.

Animal hoarding is when a person has too many animals in one house at a time and can’t take care of all of them, which leads to neglect between the animals. They should not have this many pets which is unfair to the animals. They each need personal attention throughout the day. This person may deny that they have so many animals which can be a sign of animal hoarding. Another sign would be, “They have numerous animals and may not know the total number of animals in their care. Their home is deteriorated (i.e., dirty windows, broken furniture, holes in the wall and floor, extreme clutter), and also there is a strong smell of ammonia, and floors may be covered with dried feces, urine, vomit, etc,”(A Complex Issue). All of the animal abuse should be stopped immediately before another animal dies of suffrage. In conclusion I believe animal abuse is the worst thing you can do to an animal. It is not fair that they are being beaten and stabbed. These animal are dying everyday which should not be happening. They are pets and living things not something to make money off of. They should be taken care of by an owner who actually cares about them. The things these animals are going through should be stopped immediately. I hope you too understand why we should take action by helping animal shelters that rescue these animals.

I bet you didn’t know that there is over an estimated 26 million animals in the United States that get tested every year. They are used to determine whether a medication, that is used for a humans, areis toxic or not. Whenever animals are used for testing they are food and water deprived or they are forced fed, and sometimes will get burns and cuts on purpose just so they can test out the medication. Rats, mice, fish, and birds, which is 95% of the animals used in testing, are not protected by the Animal Welfare Act. The Animal Welfare Act is the protection for animals from testing. Just because the medications pass the animal testing doesn’t mean it is good for humans to use. 94% of the medicine that is approved for animals is eventually failed in the human testing clinic.

I feel we need to put a stop to animal testing. If we don’t do it to humans then why is it fair to do it to the animals? Just because we don’t want humans to get hurt doesn’t mean we need to hurt animals. Scientist need to come up with a better way to test medicines so that no one is being harmed. How would you feel if someone was testing you with stuff that does not benefit you at all? This is a cruel act to do to an innocent animal that has not done anything to harm you. Guess how many animals die a year from testing. Approximately 100 million animals die a year, just in the United States, from animal testing including mice, rats, frogs, dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, monkeys, fish, and birds. Is this how we treat animals?

The book “A Child Called It” by Dave Pelzer describes to the reader the torture he endured every day by his mother. Before Dave was tortured daily, he had a relatively happy normal life. He would play outside with his brothers, eat meals with his family, and was able to just enjoy being a kid. His mother developed a very bad drinking problem to help her to deal with stress. She soon became an alcoholic. His mother treated Dave like her personal slave and made him do specific chores the other children did not have to do. He had to complete them in certain time limits or she would torture Dave with different “games” that she thought up. If Dave did not finish the chores in the time limit she would take away food. His mother starved him for weeks. Daves starvation led to him stealing food from others at school, begging for food from strangers and even stealing from the supermarket! His mother became so upset with him stealing food, that she tortured him. Some of the torture he was forced to endure was being locked in the bathroom with an ammonia and clorox mixture, made to drink ammonia, sleep in the cold garage, put his hands on the stove and burned them, and she even stabbed him! Dave did everything he could do to please her but nothing worked and she was never satisfied. Going to school for Dave was an escape from all the torture he had at home. When one day when he arrived at school, Dave was called to the nurses office. She questioned him on his bruises. He reluctantly told them that his mother had beat him. Soon a police officer was brought to the school to take him to a safe place so that his mother could no longer get to him. Dave was finally saved from all the torture by some loving and caring adults.

The book made me wonder what it was like being tortured by someone who was supposed to be the person to provide for and love you. I could only imagine how hard it must have been for him to stay positive through the tough time he was having with his mother and why he didn’t tell anyone that he was being beaten and tortured? I couldn’t believe that his mother came up with such torturous “games” to try to make his life as miserable as it was. After reading this book it made me reflect about what the authors message in the story was. I believe that what he was trying to convey is that, you can overcome any obstacles in your life. Even in the worst and darkest days, Dave overcame his mothers “games”. I often still wonder why Dave’s mother allowed her personal stresses of life allow her to treat her son the way she did by torturing him relentlessly on a daily basis for so many years.